What a Weekend It Was

Courtesy of Morguefile.com

Earlier this month, I attended ConGlomeration, a sci-fi/fantasy convention here in Louisville. This was my second time at ConGlom, and my first time being on panels: Mysterious Ways, the Love Connection, Monsters and Folklore, and Religion and the Supernatural. I also read from my short dark suspense story, "Family Tradition."

What I love about cons is meeting new people and seeing old acquaintances again. This year, I met fellow authors, L. Andrew Cooper and Rachael Rawlings, as well as authors I've met before, including Kate Lynd/Amy McCorkle, Marian Allen, and Tony Acree. I also talked with a publisher about a short story collection project, and met another publisher I want to submit to in the future.

Cons are a great place to network. One of the things I do is collect business cards, which I keep in a booklet. That way, if I see these people again, I remember where I first met them. Who knows, they might help me on my writing/publishing journey.

Now to get ready for Fandom Fest this summer.        

End of an Era

Most books aren't published forever.  Print publishers make room for new titles by having limited print runs, and backlisted titles that don't sell are often not reprinted.  Since e-books are technically forever, e-book publishers often deal with this by offering time-limited contracts.

Sadly, this means that my three-year contract with Lyrical Press for SUFFER THE CHILDREN has now come to an end.  The e-book in its current format has disappeared from all online retailers.  This has been a hard thing to deal with.  It's particularly depressing to discover that it's gone from the Amazon Kindle list, along with the handful of generally positive reviews it had notched up.  Somehow seeing it on Amazon made me feel validated as an author.

However, the good news is that with the end of the contract, the rights have reverted back to me, to do with them as I see fit.  And SUFFER THE CHILDREN will return as an e-book, although with a different cover.  In fact, I've commissioned an artist I know to work on the new cover image.  Watch this space for more information.

In the meantime, SUFFER THE CHILDREN is still on Goodreads - at least it is at present.  With the recent news about Amazon taking over Goodreads, who knows what's going to happen.  For now, at least, it's there, along with a few reviews that people have posted there.  So if you enjoyed SUFFER THE CHILDREN, why not go post a review there?  It might help me boost sales when the rebooted version is released.

If you didn't get around to buying it, all is not lost, as it will be back in the near future.  In the meantime, you could try DEATH SCENE or SOUL SCREAMS while you wait.  Both of them are still available from Amazon...

Writing 10K

Courtesy of MorgueFile.com

Yesterday was the start of BIAM_Writathon, the BIAM standing for Book in a Month. Every April, a group of us intrepid writers embark on a month-long journey to get words on paper (or on the screen). Unlike NaNoWriMo, there's no minimum word goal. You don't even have to write a new story. Revising is perfectly fine, too.

I wanted to step up my proverbial game. One of my shortcomings as an author is I'm a slow writer. As a result, I watch my fellow writers dash past me to the finish line, contracts their trophies. Needless to say, this can be very discouraging.

So, armed with Rachel Aaron's 2K to 10K, I set myself a goal. At least once, I would write 10k words, just to see if I could do it.

I did. Yesterday, I started Serpent's Venom, the second book in my Angels of Death series. Armed with a 15-page outline and a lot of determination, I pushed aside my internal editor and wrote. It took about eight hours, but I did it.

Not so sure I'll make that word count today, although I've clocked in 2k, and I can stay up all night if I want. If I don't limit myself to having to get 10k in before midnight, when Tuesday officially ends, then it's feasible.

Maybe I don't have as many book contracts as my fellow writers, but I keep hanging in there, persevering, writing and revising. I don't know who originally said writing was a marathon, not a sprint, but he or she is right.

But if I can write 10k words a day, I'm going to give it my best.

WIP Update - March 2013

Time for an update on current Works in Progress.

I've got several things going on at the moment. The most progressed WIP is the horror novel. It's been to beta readers, I've had feedback, and I have recently started work on Draft 4.

This novel, in summary, is about a group of live action roleplayers who unwittingly unleash a lich on the world during a game. Said lich wields powerful dark magic, and leaves death and destruction in its wake. And it sets about raising an army of zombies, as sort of a sub-plot. Anyway, on the whole the feedback was fairly positive. All my women beta readers love my main female character - she's a crack shot with a shot gun, she's ace with Resident Evil, she takes out many of the real-life zombies and she saves the boy.

There are some plot holes, and some characterisation issues, and these I am working to fix in the current draft. But I'm feeling pretty confident about this one. This one will be finished before the end of this year. In fact, I'm aiming to have it out on sub before 2014 dawns.

In the meantime, there's a second project - a collaboration with Hubby. Now, he's not a writer. But after more than 25 years of running D&D games, he's pretty good at plotting. And he's a musician. This new project is a crime thriller featuring a young female bass player, against the backdrop of the music scene in the late 1960s. We start her off at the Monterey Festival in 1967, and then bring her to London. This project is at an early stage. We've been doing a lot of the plotting together. And I have started doing some of the writing. But there's a long way to go yet, and since I've never collaborated with my life partner on a writing project before, it's somewhat uncharted territory.

And what of Shara 2? Well, that one's still languishing in a drawer. I got a bit discouraged after the crit session. Every time I get it out and review how much work there still is to do on it, I get depressed and put it away again. And DEATH SCENE has not exactly been flying off the cyber-shelves, so it's not as if I have a long queue of fans impatiently waiting for the further adventures of Shara Summers.

Nevertheless, she has one or two fans. And I would rather like to get this one finished. So perhaps I'll finish it for you. You know who you are.

This does make three WIPs on the go at once, however. And talking about them doesn't make them any closer to being finished. It's time to get back to the writing.

RIP James Herbert

Today's post was going to be an update on current WIPs. But on the way home from work today, I learned news that rocked my world. The news came to me via my Twitter feed, which I was checking on my phone on the train home, as I usually do. Say what you like about Twitter, it's the best place to go for the real news. The important news.

And the important news today - more important than trials and political scandals, more important than the fact that it was Budget Day - is that James Herbert has died. It is not an exaggeration to say I was shocked by this news. It is not even an exaggeration to say I was devastated.

James Herbert was Master of British Horror. In the 80s, when I first got into horror in a serious way, he dominated the shelves along with Stephen King. I have read many of his books. I have an entire shelf of them in my library.

I am not the only person affected by this news. Looking at my Twitter and Facebook feeds this evening, many people I follow are all saying the same thing. James Herbert informed their adolescent reading habits. James Herbert turned them on to reading, and writing, horror. James Herbert is among the greats, and the world will not be the same without him. Most people, it seemed, started off with THE RATS. I have to say I didn't get on with this particular book, which as I understand it was his first published novel. It wasn't the first James Herbert novel I read, and by the time I got to that one I was in my early 20s. It seemed to me to be a book largely preoccupied with describing - in graphic detail - people having sex, followed by said people being eaten by rats while they were cozying in the afterglow, and not much to the novel beyond that. I've said before that I'm the sort of person who skips the sex scenes, in search of something more interesting. In this case people being horribly eaten by rats was more interesting, but after three or four scenes of this it started to feel a bit 'samey'. So, no, THE RATS was not my favourite Herbert book. There are plenty of others, though, that I would rate up there as amongst the best horror novels every written. HAUNTED. THE GHOSTS OF SLEATH. THE MAGIC COTTAGE. CREED.

And then last year I read a James Herbert book that blew the rest of them out of the water. That book was NOBODY TRUE, and if you've been reading my blog for a while you may recall I wrote a glowing review (found here in case you haven't been).

I have never met James Herbert personally, in spite of going to two Cons in recent years where he was Guest of Honour - generally someting else interesting was happening, or the queue was just too long. I'm now rather regretting that I didn't take the time to stand in that queue, to get a book signed and get the chance to tell him how he inspired me as a horror writer, and how I devoured his books when I was just discovering my calling as a horror writer.

In spite of that, I still feel that I've read so many books of his that I knew him. And news of his death feels like a personal loss - a bit like losing an old friend.

Only yesterday I was contemplating buying his newest book. ASH. I decided against it at the time, my TBR pile being already so vast I shouldn't add to it until I've managed to get through some of the books in it. Now I feel the need to re-read all the James Herbert books on my shelf, and go out and buy all the ones I haven't read yet. I might even re-read THE RATS. Maybe the passage of time will make me like it more.

Goodbye, Mr Herbert. The world will not be the same without you, and you leave behind a hole in British horror fiction that no one could ever fill.

We're Number One! Oh, Wait...

Courtesy of MorgueFile.com

Last year, the Kentucky Wildcats were the number one seed in the NCAA tournament. This year? Not so good. They didn't even earn a seed in the tourney. As I type this, they're playing the first round of the NIT (National Invitation Tournament). Despite the setback, Kentucky fans are loyal. We're not called the Big Blue Nation for nothing.

But this post isn't only about basketball, it's about successes and setbacks. If you're a published author, you know the excitement of getting that contract, of seeing the final version of your book, whether in print or digital file. Images of great reviews and high-ranking Amazon sales dance in your head. (Okay, maybe not all writers feel this way, but I'm probably not too far off the mark.) :-)

In the world of basketball, a win can boost the players' confidence, make them feel like winners because they are. But what happens when the next game results in a loss? Or when a writer gets a rejection from a publisher, a bad review, or lackluster sales?

How do you bounce back?

First, realize that not every game nor every book is going to be a "winner." And you learn from mistakes. Coaches and editors advise their players and writers to be the best they can be. Take the advice of your editor and beta readers and use it to help you become a better writer.

Next, give yourself time to deal with any setbacks. After all, we're only human. We're not perfect, and we experience a myriad of emotions. What's important is not letting these emotions rule you for too long, otherwise, they can eat at your confidence, and perpetuate that vicious cycle.  

Finally, most important, get back into the game. Don't let a loss or rejection set you back. Persist and keep telling yourself that just because you didn't succeed this time, doesn't mean you'll always lose. The next winning game brings a team closer to a championship. Another accepted manuscript helps a writer establish a back list.

Now, back to the game...